5C's Que Pasa

Friday ended up being a grueling day despite only driving 353Km/219 miles.

The highway seemed to slow us down due to passing thru many small towns.

Colin thought this guy was spraying pesticide.

We then had a stop for a very long freight train. So very prairie like. The girls couldn’t figure out why we were stopped and not getting out.

Finally reached the end of the Yellowhead and time to join the Trans Canada Highway.

As we reached the outskirts of Winnipeg we encountered major construction. Can you believe 90 minutes to travel one mile?  There went our afternoon.  It became bumper to bumper for miles after this photo was taken.  We kept calling to tell everyone we were held up in traffic over and over.  Who knew it could be so bad?

It was while sitting in traffic that I realized how buggy our windshield was.  The front of the RV was splattered in bug guts.  Lots of insects on the prairies.

We finally got to Colin’s brother’s place.  Bill and Gloria had been waiting all afternoon for us to arrive but thanks to cell phones we were able to explain the reason for our delay.  First thing was to park and set up. Next on the list was to take the girls and head over to visit Colin’s Mom who was anxiously awaiting our arrival.

She looks fabulous for 100 years and 8 months, doesn’t she?

Colin loves to tease her. They really do have so much fun together.

Back to the RV to feed the girls and head out for the evening.  Colin’s brother and sister in law were heading out to a play booked long ago.  Colin and I were taking Mommio as I have always called his Mom ( cuz she is so hip ) out on the town for dinner.  The girls were going to be in lock down in a pen.  Sadly Mommio was not feeling well so we ended stay in with a very yummy pizza.  We were happy to fall into bed at midnight.

Sorry for the delay in posting but we have been on the go non stop since arriving and our time with Mommio is limited and she is our priority.

North Battleford, Saskatchewan to Binscarth Manitoba, 585Km/364miles.

You never know what you are going to see along HWY 16 aka the Yellowhead.  How did they get that combine up there?

A typical small town and grain elevator along the road.

You see these silos everywhere.

As well as many old buildings from years ago.

About 206Km West of Yorkton, Saskatchewan or more precisely 2 Km North of Lanigan there is a wonderful rest area called the Lanigan Rest Area which is managed by the Department of Highways. We pulled in to let the girls stretch their legs and to do their business. It turned out to be a very large area and a delightful surprise.

Freshly mowed fields, bathrooms, picnic tables and…..

…..individual RV sites spaced far apart with their own garbage bins. Best of all it was free.

We saw several acres of these blue round hard shell things.  There was a sign along the highway that said this was an International Environmental Project but that was it.  It would have been nice to know what it was all about.

This post and the last were started while driving. I had edited my photos the night before and only had to write the words. Of course I has to wait until I was online to add the photos and captions.

Big Quill Lake seems to have overflowed it’s banks.  Those telephone poles are down under.

As far as we could see on the other side of the road the lake just went on and on…..like the ocean.

Very interesting old church along the side of the road.

We arrived about an hour later than scheduled in Binscarth, Manitoba, our destination for the night. We were slowed by construction as well as having to slow down in some of the smaller towns we passed through. As we would be boondocking for at least the next 6 nights we needed to be able to fill our water tank and dump the other tanks. I also had planned to wash my hair which takes extra water. With careful research I found this RV Park. However no one was ever there to take my call to make a reservation. I did leave 6 messages before finally calling someone at the Municipal Office.  So I did have a reservation and very carefully explained that we were 40′ towing a car and required a pull through site and full hookups which included electric, water and dump on site. I was extra detailed as it seems that Canadian RV Parks operate somewhat differently than those is the USA. Well at least some of them do. On our last cross Canada trip 10 years ago we ran into problems with dumping and pull through sites so I was being extra cautious. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw our site.

My jaw dropped. This was not our definition of a pull through site. First of all we likely would have sunk in the grass.

Looking at the RV Park map it did show these 7 sites as being pull through. We did find a sign at the far end of the grass saying no parking in front of what looked like very faint tracks in the grass.  No way could we have made that turn, that is if we hadn’t sunk due to our weight.  Did I mention that there was no dump  👿 My new mantra is ‘what to do’ ?  Did I mention that it was 5:30PM our time but actually 6:30PM local time which I promptly forgot?  Did I mention that the mosquitoes here were even larger that the last stop. They were big and black and had a mean bite.  So we drove around the loop and parked parallel to the sites while still on the road so we could plug in and hook up the water. I felt like I was back I Mexico  🙂   There was no one else in the entire park so we felt we were okay doing what we did.  In fact the office was closed and we never saw another person for several hours. We determined that we had enough space in the tank so I washed my hair. Colin took Carmeh for a stroller ride while Caeli walked.  He reported back that the sani dump had a lock on it!

Some campground! A few hours later a truck pulled up, turns out he was a seasonal camper in the back forty. Colin asked about the dump being locked. Turns out it is all for show so folks don’t drive in to dump and there was a trick to open it. So we knew we could dump in the morning as we were leaving. The last RV Park we used in Manitoba had proper pull through sites except you were not allowed to stay hooked up to drive thru them  😡  I asked that manager/owner what a 5^th wheel was supposed to do in a pull through site?  He told me I was being a smart aleck.  I know it can always be worse but really.

So we just ended up parking on the road.

Quick Carmeh update. She is stronger and able to stand on all four legs and walk a few steps before becoming wobbly. When she squats to pee she tends to fall over on her left. Her right back leg is stronger than the left. She is feeling better and because of that remains a handful. We continue to hope that with time she will improve.

Wednesday was going to be a long day and it became even longer when we couldn’t hook up. However I am getting ahead of myself. Our orignal plan for today was a 9:00AM chiropractor appointment, my last in a series of three. It was only for 15 minutes. Colin was so impressed with my diagnosis and treatment that he also wanted an appointment. So they fit us in between 10:00AM and 11:15AM. Our plan was to drive to North Battleford afterwards.

A distance of 256 miles

Great chiropractor appointments for both of us. We were back at the RV by 11:30AM. We had everything ready for travel before our appointments including slides in and jacks up. The plan was to leave the girls in the back of the penned up area of the car while we hooked up. I pulled the car up behind the RV and went into the office to turn in our car pass and get my deposit back. Once back outside Colin tells me that we can’t go anywhere as the car tow bar pins ( base plate ) were missing. This RV is 14 years old and he always puts the pins back in after unhooking the RV.  They have never been misplaced by us ever.  He actually noticed the pins a few days earlier and now suddenly they were no longer there. There was no way we could hook up the car to the RV. What to do? Colin went back to our campsite to see if the pins were on the ground. Of course not! The manager of the park gave us the name of a nut and bolt place. I Googled the location and did a screen capture of the map. We decided to all travel together in the car.  If Colin drove the RV and I the car with the girls in it there was a chance of not finding the place or not finding parking for the RV and there being a problem with Carmeh who needs to be supervised.  First we had to back the RV up about a block and park it.

So off we went. First stop was an RV repair facility but they had nothing for us but were able to direct us to a hitch place around the corner. Colin went in and came out with a lady. She had some pins but they were too small. Turns out she could order the Roadmaster pins in but it would take four days !!!!!

Just one block over we found what we needed. Not quite the same but they would do the job. Only $7.00 each.

This new MacAir is becoming rather useful. I did have my hot spot device with me in case I needed to do more online research.

Can’t figure out why someone would need the original two more that we did. For certain we will be keeping a spare set in the RV from now on.

While Colin hooked up I made us some sandwiches to eat as we drove. Final bathroom break for the girls and some treats and we headed out somewhat late at 1:40PM. By the time we fueled up at the Flying J/Shell station and hit Highway 16 East it was 2:10PM. I know what some of you are thinking, this is when you stop for the day and yet we still had 256 miles to go  🙁   The good news is that we filled with diesel @ 1.01 per litre. Great price. When we fueled in Kamloops last Thursday it was @ 1.19/litre.

We do have a schedule to maintain due to prior appointments and Colin’s 100 year old Mom is waiting for us. Caeli slept most of the way but Carmeh was restless and wanted to roam which she is not allowed to do. Finally I put her up on the dash where she sat and watched the world go by for a very short while. Back to her bed which is set between us and I continued icing her. We made one quick stop for the girls in Lloydminster and carried on. Finally pulled into the RV Park in North Battleford about 6:30PM and a sign on the door said “gone for lunch and back at 7:30PM”. No sign or note telling us which site to park in and I had made a reservation  👿   By now the girls were hungry as we were. Nothing to do but put Carmeh in her shoulder bag and we went for a walk to checkout sites. I already knew that we couldn’t have a dump site as the seasonal campers had all of those. We just needed a pull though site with electric if possible. Finally found just the one site in the entire place that we could get into and out of.

We parked, quickly set up and fed the girls. I had some homemade lentil soup and fresh rolls for our dinner. Afterwards I walked up to the office to checkin. I swear they wouldn’t have known we were there and we could just have left in the AM without paying.  I felt that $25.00 for a bare bones site was a lot but it did include fast wifi ( which was good as I could not pick up a Rogers signal on my device ) and it was fabulous having a place to stop at.  After the day we had, finding a boondocking site would have been too much.  We could however have done without the one inch mosquitoes  🙄

It was quiet and it was nice to hear the birds again. For some reason there were no birds to be heard in Edmonton.

Tuesday was a go go go day.  First stop was to pick up fruit and fill our 5 gallon water jug.  After that I had my follow up chiro appointment.  I was happy to learn that my body had retained my adjustment from Saturday.  This may be the chiropractor that really helps me.  So impressive to find someone who looks for the cause of the problem and treats that and not the symptoms.  The treatment he uses is called Neuro Impulse Protocol  along with the activator and was invented by an MD in Australia.

I really like how he sits behind me and I can see what he is doing.

Next stop was to deliver to the Edmonton Police Association a few things my Father had wanted passed on.  It was so neat to see the policeman’s face, who was on duty, change from a public official face to a softened human face when I explained who I was and why I was there.  He actually invited me behind the counter and into the back to see some of the old photos.

A photo of a photo…..the old police station on Whyte Avenue, one that Dad had worked out of long ago on one of his first beats.

Next stop was to see our very special Casa Maria who is our massage therapist on the Isla.  She lives here in Edmonton where she does massages when not in Mexico.  I received a massage and Carmeh received a lot of Therapeutic Touch.

The girls love Mary and today they were so happy to be able to be with her.

She did a lot of work on Carmeh and gave me a brief lesson on what to do.  Carmeh becomes totally calm when she is with Mary.  Mary was able to remove all of the heat from her spine but I have no idea how long that lasted.  I’m sure it came back eventually as the day progressed but it was nice to see Carmeh so happy and relaxed. The main reason I saw this chiropractor in Edmonton was due to Mary’s urging and she said that my neck and shoulders were no longer like stone but now movable.  Success 😀

Our next stop was to pick up some tranquilizers for Carmeh.  She is becoming too strong and difficult to control as she improves.  We had several calls to our vet in Kelowna Tuesday morning and I was tasked with finding a local vet so that our vet could call in a script for Carmeh.  I had no idea where any vets were so I simply walked into a shop on Whyte Avenue next to the chiropractor’s and asked.  Fortunately the fellow I spoke with knew of a vet who was just a few blocks away.  So a few hours later we picked up the meds.  We haven’t used them yet but it is good to have them in case we need them.

Finally back to the RV park where we unloaded and put things away.  No time for a walk today.  As I said earlier, it was a to do day.  Shortly after we got back both my sisters arrived.  We had some business to discuss.

Mostly it was a serious time.  Carmeh was so upset with the tone of voices that Colin had to take her into the bedroom and close the door.

But Colin made us laugh.

They didn’t leave till quite late and it was after 8PM before we could start dinner.  Needless to say we were exhausted.

Wednesday turned out to be a very loco day….stay tuned for that.  I can’t keep up to date with the events right now but suffice to say that Wednesday was even busier than Tuesday 😥   Well we really aren’t on vacation but still things could be just a tad easier.  Stay tuned.

Went for a walk but it was cool.

..and we ended up spending most of the day inside as it was rather cool out.  Of course they both wanted to be on me.

Carmeh is getting too frisky. Here she and Caeli are wrestling with Colin intervening.

For some unknown reason Carmeh decided to look like the flying nun most of the day. Those ears are ‘outstanding’.

Later in the afternoon my brother visited to complete some family business.  We had a good but short visit.

For some reason he insisted that I sit on his knee for this photo!!

Next on the agenda was a grade 12 class reunion dinner.  The last get together was in early October when I was here caring for my Dad.  We were 10 that time and this time 11.  Slowly we are growing in number.  It was a special few hours spent creating new memories.

Hard to believe we graduated 44 years ago.